Dark Haven: Dark Legacy
by Lindsey Blythe
Summary: The last thing Xander Harris wanted after resigning from the watcher's council was to be caught up in the supernatural world again. He just wanted to retire from the good fight and live a normal life. However, Xander's life is turned upside down, when he unsuspecting inherits an old broken down Victorian manor that is more than it seems, and is harder to escape from.
1. Installment 1 - Transference

**Title:** Dark Haven: Dark Legacy

**Installment Title:** Transference

**Author:** Lindsey Blythe

**Wordcount:** 2,686

**Rating:** PG-13

**Characters:** Xander Harris, Aleister Mortimer, Miranda Holbrook

**Beta(s):** Akime Salt

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Author's Note:** So first and foremost I blame my bff, Starr_Falling for feeding this plot bunny in the first place. Also want to thank all of my friends and fellow minions on facebook for putting up with my crap and all my blubbering about this series for months. I love each and everyone of you. I especially want to thank akime_salt for her awesome beta-ing skills, and for helping me to whip this fic into shape. I would love to say this fic is going to be updated every two weeks, but I'm a pretty slow writer, so this might be updated a lot slower than that. Sorry!

ETA: This story is a multimedia fic, but what is being posted here and on A03 is only the plain version. If you want to read this fic with all the bells and whistles that include: graphics, click-able character bios, and embedded music. Please go to this site: darkhavenseries dot x10 dot mx slash efic

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**Boston, Massachusetts**

* * *

"I quit."

Those two simple words changed everything for Xander Harris. It had been a year since the destruction of Sunnydale, a year since Anya's death, and the removal of his right eye.

In the wilderness of Tanzania, among the tribal people there, Xander had finally shed the class clown mask that he wore all of his life. Those eleven months in Africa had been the best and the worst time. He had seen poverty, sickness, and death.

Xander also learned to be himself there. He learned to not take things for granted, and to count every one of your blessings His time in Africa had peeled every mask, every false truth about himself and he was able to finally move out from behind Buffy's shadow, and finally grow out of the roles of the donut boy, and the zeppo.

After he returned to The New Watcher's Council Headquarters in Cleveland, it didn't take him very long to realize that he didn't fit into the role of a traditional Watcher. He really had no interest of mentoring some young junior slayer and possibly watching they die. And Xander had enough of watching the people he cared about die to last a life time. And in Africa, he was never assigned a slayer. He just retrieved them, and sent them on to someone else that can train them to reach their full potential.

And besides, his girls didn't need him anymore to watch out for them. They were all scattered all over the world, and everybody was too busy doing their own thing. Hell it had been almost a year since he had seen the rest of the Scoobies. At the moment, Buffy and Dawn were in Rome. Willow and her lover Kennedy were in South America. And Giles and Andrew were running the headquarters in Cleveland.

He knew deep in his heart that leaving the council was the right thing to do. So the next day, he went to Giles's office, and tendered his resignation.

Oh, Giles and Andrew hadn't been happy about it. And he got some concerned emails from the girls, but after they realized that he was completely serious, and that they couldn't change his mind; they reluctantly accepted his resignation.

For the next month or so, Xander traveled aimlessly through the country. Stopping at all the places he wanted to visit all those years ago on his failed road trip.

And at the moment he was in Boston, playing the tourist, and taking in the various sights all the historic city had to offer. While at night he would hit the bars and the clubs and pretended to be a carefree twenty-three year old. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But it was better than lying down in his bed, counting the cracks in the ceiling to pass the time after he had woken up from yet another nightmare.

Suddenly, a brisk wind whipped past him making him shiver. He zipped the zipper of his black leather coat as high as it would go, and then rubbed his hands together in a vain hope to generate some heat. After a moment, he slipped his hands back into his relatively warmer pockets and looked around and realized that he had no idea where he was.

Xander winced as he finally snap out of his thoughts. He was brooding again, goddamn it. Xander was turning into dead boy! If Xander started wearing leather pants, and stalking people for fun he was going to promptly throw himself into moving traffic.

Looking around, he realized to his astonishment that Xander was no longer in the relatively tourist friendly part of downtown, but instead he had unconsciously wandered into the seedier section of the city.

The buildings in this part of town were old and broken down. There was a smattering of abandoned buildings, their windows were bordered up with cardboard, and the walls were sprayed with graffiti. As he walked by, he got some looks that were a mixture of seductive and sharply calculating from a few prostitutes who were already out and ready to pick up their latest trick. Xander just ignored them, as he pulled out his phone and pulled up the GPS app.

Xander paused for a moment as he tried to figure out a way to the nearest bar or at this point he even would settle for a way to just go back to his hotel.

Suddenly, a loud scream pierced through the night, startling Xander so much that he almost dropped his phone.  
Activity on the street seem to freeze for a long moment, before people went back to their own devices. What was one more scream in the night, especially in a neighborhood like this?

As Xander stood there, a part of him wanted to just walk away and find a way out of this neighborhood as fast as he could. Yet, another part of him, the very same part that made him follow Buffy all those long years ago was drowning out any lingering feeling of self-preservation.

And in the end he couldn't just ignore a person in need. Xander bit back a frustrated groan as he quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket, and promptly ran in the scream's direction. He dodged various people on the sidewalks as he muttered a mixture of curses and apologies as he bumped into or shoved people out of the way.

He heard another scream as Xander turned the corner into a small narrow alleyway. Standing there were three men, and at first Xander thought that maybe he got lost again, but as he carefully approached the group Xander spotted the tale-tell signs of the sharp pronounced ridges of their faces, the glowing yellow eyes, and sharp fangs. Xander realized that these were not humans, but actually were vampires. The woman continued to struggle and scream, and Xander knew that she had no way of getting out of the vampire's hold alive. Vampires were preternaturally stronger and faster than most humans, and if he didn't intervene this stranger would die, and he couldn't handle adding yet another death to his already guilty conscience.

Xander inwardly groaned. It was just his luck that he would stumble on some vampires, only a month after he quit the whole slayerette gig. Xander glared at the vampires, noticing that the other two vampires full attention was on their companion as he drained the last few remaining pints of blood from the middle aged woman. The woman's screams had now faded into painful whimpers and her body was mostly limp in the creature's arm. Xander slid the stake out of his arm holster, and carefully, oh so carefully walked behind one the vampires and staked him quickly and efficiently.

"Hey!"

Xander turned in time to feel a hard fist connect to his chest. It hurt like a bitch, but Xander was able to push the pain aside, and kick out with a solid round house kick to the guy's solar plexus, then he followed it up with a kick to the vampire's right knee in a move that quickly disabled the creature. Xander smirked at the sharp crack he heard as his heavy workman's boots broke the man's right knee. The vampire screamed, and collapsed on to the ground.

Xander didn't hesitate for a moment, and quickly bent down to dust the vampire in one fluid movement.

Xander stood up and looked over to where the last remaining vampire stood. The woman was now standing in front of the creature; his hands were firmly wrapped around her throat as he used the dying woman as a shield.  
"Let her go," Xander spoke for the first time.

"No way," The vampire said, as he slowly back away to towards entrance of the alley. "I'll die if I do." Xander's hand tightened around the stake, as he started to advance on the vampire.

Xander didn't say anything, he just shook his head. The vampire was going to survive tonight either way, but if he had to get the vampire to let this woman go so Xander could get her get some much needed medical attention.

"Ah, ah, ah," The vampire said, as he visibly tightened his grip around the woman's neck. The vampire's grip was so hard that the woman was beginning to turn blue from the lack of oxygen. "Don't come any closer, human."  
Xander froze, but his eyes didn't move from the vampire's yellow malignant gaze. "Look, man this can be just be between you and me-just let her go"

The vampire eyes once again darted towards the entrance, then back again at and/isn't needed Xander had a chance to move, the vampire suddenly threw the woman out the way and charged at Xander; slamming him hard into the ground. Look this sentence through again.

Xander groaned as his head connected to the hard pavement. Blinking out of his daze,he went rigid as he as saw the vampire's razor sharp fangs were only a few precious inches away from jugular.

Xander knew from experience that the vampires was stronger than him, and that at this point his only option was to fight dirty. He quickly brought his knee up, and slammed his knee as hard as he could to up into the vampire's crotch.  
The vampire groaned in pain, and loosen his grip enough for Xander to roll free.

"I'm going to make you suffer for this," The vampire snarled through barred teeth, as he cradled his abused crotch in his hands.

Xander didn't say anything as he stood up as quickly as he could and connected a hard round house kick in the man's solar plexus, and then followed that up with a kick to the vampire's head. And then once again, he bent down and staked the prone form of the vampire.

When the dust finally cleared enough for him to see, Xander immediately noticed the woman was lying only a short distance away. She was alarmingly still, and Xander couldn't see her breathing. Xander hurried over to her as fast as he could with his bruised ribs. He knelt down beside her, and took her pulse. Xander was relieved that he could still hear a faint heartbeat, but he was also alarmed at how quickly her pulse was fading. If he didn't get this woman medical attention soon, she would inevitably die in this alley tonight.

"Shit," Xander cursed.

He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911. Xander rapidly relayed as much information on the woman's injuries, and the relative location of the alley as he could. While at the same time, he invaded any questions concerning his identity, and anything that would lead to any incriminating information that would point the police in his direction. This was Boston, not Sunnydale, and Xander knew that he would have a hard time explaining the knife, and the wooden stakes that were stashed in the inside pockets of his jacket. They would probably jump to the conclusion that Xander was responsible for what happen to this poor woman, and he _really_ didn't want to end up in prison.

After a few minutes talking to the operator, Xander hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. He took in the woman's worn dress, and with a sigh, he gave her a silent apology, before Xander ripped a large piece from the end of her dress. He took the torn piece of fabric, and pressed in against the wide open wound on the woman's neck in a small hope that it would stop the bleeding. It wouldn't be long until the paramedics arrived, but he couldn't just leave her alone as a waiting meal for anything else that might want to snack on her defenseless body tonight. Xander would leave the moment he would hear the sirens, hoping it would give him just enough warning for his escape.

Suddenly, the woman began to slowly stir. It was only a short moment later, when her eyes gradually opened to reveal emerald colored orbs that were filled with a mixture of pain, and resignation. Xander quickly came to conclusion that this woman knew that she was dying.

"Hold on." Xander said, softly. "Help-"

The woman's hand shakily came up to rest upon Xander's cheek. "T—Thank you." She barely managed to get out, before suddenly Xander felt a wave of—of energy for a lack of a better word enter him. It was like a tidal wave inside of him; it was all hot like a blazing inferno, and yet at the same time frigid like there was ice surging in his veins. He shivered, as at the same time his vision of in his one good eye went abruptly black then white. It surged rapidly from the crown of his head, through his chest, and then Xander screamed at the sudden feeling of hot white pain in his left arm. And then as abruptly as this started, it was over. The pain receded suddenly and a moment later his vision gradually starts to fade back in.

* * *

**Dark Haven Manor **

_Addams's Vale, Massachusetts _

* * *

The first thing he noticed was the silence. There weren't any sounds of cars driving past, no loud music, and no heavy footsteps of people walking down the street. There wasn't a steady stream of noise that came with being in a big city like Boston. There was just sound of a cool breeze that whipped passedhim, and as his eye began to focus he spotted the thick corpse of trees that surrounded him.

"What the hell?" Xander said as he sat up from where he had been lying on the grass. He turned around, and froze as he took in the decrepit old Victorian mansion standing a few hundred yards away from him. "And _where_ the holy fuck am I?

"Welcome to Dark Haven, Mr. Harris."

Xander whirled around to see an middle aged man standing in front of him. The man was almost ghostly pale, with black slicked back hair, and his frame was as thin and narrow as a was dressed sharply in a tailored black suit, and trousers. Quite frankly, the man looked like he worked at a mortuary or something. However, what Xander found the most striking was the man's piercing gray eyes. The man seemed to not look at you, but to look through you instead. It was as if the stranger could immediately see all Xander's inner most thoughts and secrets. Quite frankly, this dude wigged him the hell out. But instead of running away as he probably would ofdone eight years ago, Xander pushed aside his discomfort and straighten up to his full height to glare right back at the man.

"Who are you, and what am I doing here? Xander demanded, and then he quickly added: "And if you are a demon that kidnapped me for a sleazy sacrifice or something, that you are out of luck, buddy. Cause I got to tell you, that my two best friends are a bad ass slayer, and an uber powerful witch who will not take kindly to you kidnapping me.

"My name is Aleister Mortimer, and I'm the executor of The Addams's estate." The man shook his head, "And I have no intention to sacrifice you or anybody else for that matter."

"The Addams's Estate?."

The man gestured towards the mansion: "For the last two hundred or so years, it has been mine and my family's duty to guide each new proprietor of the house."

Xander nodded, then froze in horror as the young man ran back through what Mortimer just said. "And the new proprietor is…"

Mortimer lifted an eyebrow, and gave him another piercing look, before he finally said: "Why, you are Mr. Harris." He smirked down at Xander's stunned face. "You are the new proprietor of Dark Haven."

_To Be Continued …_

* * *

_**Next time on Dark Haven: Dark Legacy  
**_

- Xander realizes that getting out being proprietor of the manor is going to be a lot harder than he originally thought.


	2. Installment 2 - Welcome To The Rabbit

**Installment 2 – Welcome To The Rabbit Hole **

**Author's Notes: **So I'm sorry about the long update, this installment was a bitch to write. I had some RL issues: like getting sick, and my kids getting sick. And then my beta, Akime Salt was busy with her own RL issues. In the end it took me a month to get this out. I want to thank everybody who gave reviews, kudos, or just followed this fic. You're interest keeps me going, without a doubt. Thank you so much for your support!

ETA: I also want to remind everyone again that this story is a multimedia fic, but what is posted on here and at A03 is only the plain version. You can find this installment with all the bells and whistles at the darkhaven archive at darkhavenseries x10 dot mx slash efic

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Mortimer lifted an eyebrow, and gave him another piercing look, before he finally said: "Why, you are Mr. Harris." He smirked down at Xander's stunned face. "You are the new proprietor of Dark Haven."

Xander blinked, as he tried and failed to compute what the man just said. "Uh, the proprietor?"

Mortimer stared at him for a long moment, before he explained: "The owner of this manor, and the surrounding lands."

"How in the hell did that happen?"

In the next moment, Mortimer's face was only a few inches away from him. The other man reached out and took his hand, it was cool and hard as steel as he turned the younger man's hand around to swipe his thumb across Xander's wrist. Then suddenly a tattoo just ... it just appeared. The tattoo itself was made up of a circle, and inside the circle were six arrows pointing each direction, and the whole thing was tied together with thin curly, wavy lines.

"What is this?"

"This is the tattoo that each proprietor is marked with," Mortimer said, as he released Xander's hand and stepped back. "There is no mistaking you for what you are now."

Xander shook his head, his eyes were wide with disbelief. "No-"

Mortimer just gave him a pitying look. Xander stared at the man for a long moment, before he turned around to take another look at the house that just loomed there in front of him; the outline of the manor was dark and menacing in the moonlight. It just had to be the Harris luck coming out once again to fuck up his plans. But he wasn't going to stay here, Xander didn't really care about what Mortimer said about him, the tattoo, or the goddamn house. He was not going to stay here. He was done with freaky hellmouth shit, and Xander didn't plan on letting this tattoo or this old house stand in his way.

Xander turned around again, to see Mortimer just standing there waiting for him patiently.

"Look, man I don't know what you think you know about me, but I really can't—"

Just then, Xander was startled when he heard a low boom of thunder. "What the hell?"

Mortimer looked up to the sky, before he turned back to Xander. "Come along, Mr. Harris. A storm is coming, and we must head to the manor for shelter." Then the older man calmly walked away, leaving Xander to just stare at his retreating back until he disappeared out of his line of sight..

Xander really didn't want to step one foot inside the manor, but he knew that Mortimer was right, and it was only a matter of time until it started to rain. He threw a resigned look at the house, before he started to run. And tonight Xander's luck seemed to be running true to form because midway there the skies seemed to open up and rain poured down on him; immediately soaking his jacket, t-shirt, and jeans.

As Xander finally approached the house, he paused at the short old rusted iron wrought gate that surrounded the perimeter of the manor. He looked around, but found no trace of Mortimer. Xander shivered, his clothes was now sticking to his skin. , The rusted old gate gave a squeak as Xander opened it, before he hurried down the cobbled pathway towards the house.

"Mortimer?" He called out, but there was no response

As Xander came closer, he was just barely able to take in a few more features of the house. It was old, and it looked like it was only a few steps above being condemned. As the lightning flashed over the sky, Xander could make out that the house was an old fashioned Victorian manor. The windows were in bad shape, the upper story had a few panes of windows missing, but the floor level windows were completely bare of glass, and were instead replaced with plywood.

Xander quickly jogged up the stone steps and froze just as he was about to set foot on to the front porch. Xander swore underneath his breath as he suddenly realized that there were several missing floor boards. He maneuvered as best as he could in the near darkness before he finally made it to the front door.

"Mortimer!" Xander called out again, as he raised his hand to knock on the door. As Xander started to knock, he nearly had a heart attack, when the door suddenly swung open seemingly by itself.

Xander spun around to give one last longing look at the forest surrounding the house. At this point, Xander wished he could just walk away, and go back to his shitty motel room in Boston. However, he was freezing, and it was really coming down hard out there. In the end, Xander really didn't have a choice. So, he squared his shoulders, gathered as much courage as he possibly could, and Xander turned around and stepped cautiously inside.

Xander closed the door behind him, and walked farther into the house. The inside was just as bad as the outside from what he could see. As Xander walked into the front parlor, he noticed that they were walls with large gaping holes in them, and faded outdated wallpaper. The furniture was obviously antique and expensive. There was an a old fashioned settee, an oval wooden coffee table, and two really uncomfortable looking chintz chairs that bracketed the large marble unlit fireplace.

"Hello?" Xander called out, as he walked farther into the room.

Xander almost jumped about a foot in the air, he a felt hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Mortimer standing there, taking in the younger man's panic with a blank face.

"J ...Jesus, stop doing that."

"I'm sorry to alarm you, Mr. Harris." Mortimer quirked up his lips, and Xander glared back at the older man. He had a sneaking suspicion that Mortimer got some sick enjoyment by scaring the living daylights out of unsuspecting people.

Xander's eyes went wide when he finally noticed that the man was completely dry, and changed into a fresh identical looking suit. "H ... How?" Xander stuttered out. He crossed his arms in front of him, as he narrowed his brown eyes at the other man. "I think you owe me some answers..."

"I rather think that you need to get out of your wet clothing first-."Mortimer replied, as he lifted an eyebrow.

"What are you!" Xander demanded, ignoring any suggestion of getting out of his clothes despite the fact he was freezing. This guy raised every one of his 'spider senses', and he had learned to trust his instincts a long time ago.

Mortimer grimaced," I'm... I'm complicated."

Xander opened his mouth to say something, but Mortimer interrupted him again. "Come along now, Mr. Harris. We must get you out of those clothes before you catch your death."

Xander shivered again, and he realized that his teeth were not so subtly chattering. With a sigh, Xander said, "Fine." Yet the unsaid 'this is not over yet' could be heard in that one word.

"Of course, Mr. Harris," Mortimer said, giving a small bow. "Please follow me."

Xander threw another suspicious look at the man, before he finally nodded, and followed Mortimer up the stairs. While climbing up the stairs, Xander noticed that there were several portraits of men and women of varying ages and looks, and the only constant was the tattoo on the inside of their wrists.

He froze as something about the last portrait caught his eye. It was a middle age woman with long curly blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. It took him a moment to realize that this was the woman he had watched die in the alley earlier tonight

"That was Ms. Holbrook."

Xander whirled around, and if it wasn't for Mortimer's steady grip, he would have probably fallen down the stairs. "Stop doing that, dammit!" He put a hand to his chest.

Mortimer raised his eyebrows silently and then let go of him.

After calming down, Xander turned back around to look back at the smiling face in the portrait. This woman - Holbrook lady - was far away from the woman that had bled out in his arms. That woman had been broken and dying. He was surprised to feel anger there, along with guilt. If he had been quicker this woman would have been alive. She would still be a vibrant and alive as she was in the portrait. Maybe this was his penance, or a punishment for being for failing to save yet another soul.

Xander sighed, and then turned around to look at Mortimer, who was just staring at him with indiscernible look on his face.

"Let's go."

Xander followed Mortimer down a long hall with closed doors. They stopped in front of a seemingly random door almost at the end of the hall.

It opened to a bedroom that looked like it was ripped right off the set of 'Downtown Abby'. The bed was a huge four poster wooden monstrosity that took up a good portion of the room. The walls had dark wood paneling, with a few expensive looking paintings hanging from them. In the right corner of the room was a wardrobe, and in the opposite corner was an old fashioned secretary's desk and chair.

"This was Mr. Holbrook's room."

"Her husband?" If the previous owner had been married, why hadn't he inherited the house?

"No, Mr. Holbrook ...Simon...was Ms. Holbrook's brother," Mortimer explained. "He used to stay here often well, before—"

Some indiscernible emotion came over his face, before it was hidden once again behind the man's ever present blank expression.

"Never mind," Mortimer shook his head, before he turned around and walked to the wardrobe and took out a plain light blue pajama set and laid it out on top of the bed.

"Are you hungry?"

Xander was more tired than hungry at this point, so he just shook his head.

"Very well, there is a bathroom two doors down," Mortimer said, as he turned around and walked over to the younger man. He took out his wallet, and handed Xander a card. "And if you need anything, anything at all, please feel free to call me."

"So you don't live here?"

"Heavens, no!" Mortimer shook his head," I live in town."

Xander hesitantly took the card and read it:

_iMortimer & Birch_

_Aleister Mortimer_

_Attorney at Law/i_

On the back was an address in Addams's Vale, and a phone number.

"You're a lawyer?"

"Yes." Mortimer nodded, "I am a senior partner at Mortimer and Birch." Then he sighed, as Mortimer looked down at his watch. "It's getting late, and unfortunately I must be going. "

And with a nod, he spun around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Now alone, Xander crossed the room, and sat down on the edge of the bed. He put his head in his hands and groaned. "How the fuck do I get myself into these types of situations?

Xander opened his eyes to find himself back in that narrow alley, the place where all this mess started. Yet, instead of the typical noises of the city. Everything was quiet and still. It was like everything around him was frozen in time.

Xander mind's raced as he tried to figure out how he got there, a for a moment he thought that maybe that Mortimer had finally given in and listened to him; that he could finally get back to the ways things have been.

Suddenly, Xander heard a noise, and as he looked down and was startled to see a woman lying in front of him, in a pool of her own blood, her long curly hair flared around her like a halo. The woman was staring back at him with her cornflower blue eyes that were glazed over with pain, and a hint of something else he couldn't quite pin down.

"Please. .. " Xander begged, feeling as if he was being stabbed in the heart. This woman was yet another person that had died because of him. A person that he could have saved if he hadn't been so damn slow, if just followed his fucking instincts, if he just been that bit quicker.

Xander was pulled out of his thoughts when suddenly he felt a cool hand on his face. He jerked away, and looked back down to see that the woman was staring at him with an intense look that gave him a feeling of dread.

"T-Thank you." And Xander remembering those words, tensed in anticipation of the debilitating pain and the white light that had followed the last time. Yet, there was nothing, as the remaining life in her eyes faded away, before she went rigid in his arms.

Xander just sat there for a long time. He just stood there, unable to move, a million recriminations rolling through his brain.

Suddenly, he heard a sound of someone sobbing coming from behind him. Xander turned his head to see where the disturbance was coming from, but there was no visible sign of anyone else there. The sobbing seemed ten times louder in the silence of the alley, and for some undefinable reason the weeping seem to rattle through him and touch something inside.

The despair and the pitiful whimpers yanked something inside him. Maybe it was that same feeling that made him jump into the alley and into certain danger; maybe it was curiosity, or his white knight complex pulling him to investigate the sounds of weeping. Xander just stood up, and turned to follow the sound, until he was almost at the end of the alley. He still couldn't see anything, but then in the corner of his eye he spotted a form of a person crunched up into a ball. The person's face was hidden underneath a long curtain of dark hair. The person was rocking back and forth while they sobbed.

"Hello?"

There was no answer, as Xander tentatively approached her. "Are you alright?" He asked and then rolled his eyes at the stupid question. Of course she wasn't okay!

Xander cautiously reached out to touch her shoulder.

The person jerked away, or rather, the woman; because Xander could clearly see that it was a woman who looked up at him with tears falling down from her dark eyes. "H-Help me." She stuttered out, her voice was quiet, and filled with desperation. "P... Please...Please ... help me."

Xander gasped, and sat up in bed feeling as if his heart was pounding out of his chest. His eyes darted around the room. Xander saw immediately that he wasn't in his motel room. It took him a moment to member the alley, the woman dying, being somehow transported here, meeting Mortimer...

Xander flopped back down on to the bed, and put his hand over his face. "Jesus, what is my life?"

So last night hadn't been some weird dream, or rather nightmare. Speaking of nightmares, Xander thought about the one he just had. Xander sighed, as he thought about the woman (Ms. Holbrook, as he remembered Mortimer telling him last night) dying in front of him. However, there was that girl, the look of sadness, and desperation on her face when she had begged him to help her.

Xander pulled his hand away, and turned his wrist to stare at the tattoo. 'This was all so freaky', Xander thought as he began to trace the interact lines of the tattoo with his other hand.

Xander was startled out of his thoughts, when he heard the tale-tell sound of a car driving up the house. Xander scrambled out of the bed, and walked over to the window. Xander pulled the dark red curtains aside and to his astonishment he saw his shiny black 1960 Lincoln Mark V convertible sitting in the driveway.

Xander quickly pulled on his shoes, and grabbed his ruined jacket, before he hurried out of the door, not caring in the least that he was still in his pajamas.

He ran down the stairs, passed the front parlor, and the foyer, before he was finally out the door. After once again maneuvering through the missing patches of the porch, Xander ran down the steps, out of the gate, and came to a stop in front of the car. Strangely enough, Xander didn't see any sign of the driver. Xander walked over to the driver's side, looking to see the usual signs that his car had been hot-wired, but there was nothing out of place.

Xander suddenly spotted a familiar looking duffel bag sitting in the back seat. He leaned over to pick up the bag and set it on the front hood. Xander opened it to find a thick vanilla envelope with his name scrawled on top of it in cursive. Xander put it aside to investigate the rest of the contents of the bag. What he found were all the rest of his meager belongings: His clothes, his extra pair of shoes, his books, and toiletries. He zipped the bag and turned his attention back to the envelope. Xander opened it up to see a set of keys and a stack of carefully folded papers.

As he took out and unfolded the papers he realized that one of the papers was a deed of this house, listing him as the owner.

Xander took out the keys, and then he turned around to look back at the house. The house seemed to look ten times worse in the harsh light of day. It really looked like it was just a step away from being condemned. With a sigh, Xander looked back down at the deed, and after a long moment he crumpled up the deed in his hand and threw it on the ground.

No matter what a stupid paper said, he wasn't going to stay here. He didn't want or need this house and, nothing that Mortimer creep could do or say would change his mind.

Xander turned around and marched back inside. Xander intended to get quickly dressed, and then he was getting as far away from this house as he possibly could.

The pain started out gradually, so slowly that he barely noticed it at first. Xander had been in too much of a good mood to pay attention to it, as he drove down the road that led into of the town.

Xander was too busy singing along to his favorite country song at the top of his lungs, and taking in the effect of autumn in this part of the country. The various trees that darted along the road wasbreathtaking with their red, brown, and golden leaves swaying in the cool wind.

It was only a few minutes later when Xander finally made his way into town. Addams's Vale looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. It had small quaint looking shops made out of clapboard, mixed in with two or three story brick buildings that looked like they haven't been updated since the nineteenth century. It was all quaint, and cozy, and Xander felt a little out of place in his classic black behemoth as he drove past the buildings that made up Main Street...

It didn't help that people on the street would stop and stare at him, and then they would whisper conspiratorially to each other. Sometimes someone would go as far is to point at him as he drove past.

Xander just shook it off, and concentrated on leaving the town, and the eerie manor behind. However, the further he got out of the town the more his headache grew and finally blossomed into a migraine.

The pain was unbearable, and it felt like his head was going to split in half. Xander's vision was blurry, and he was starting to see spots. However, Xander knew at that point that he should pull over, and if this had been any other situation, he would have.

But he needed to get out, and Xander feared that the longer he stayed here, the harder it would be for him to leave. And there was just no way in hell that Xander was staying in this town any longer.

So Xander gritted his teeth, as he tries to bare through the pain. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, and pressed down harder on the gas pedal; uncaring that his speed was accelerating further and further passed the speed limit.

Suddenly, there was something huge, hairy, and with a whole lot of sharp teeth ran out abruptly into the path of his oncoming car. Xander swore underneath his breath as he suddenly turned the wheel sharply to the right. However, due to his debilitating pain, and his blurry vision his reaction time was off, and he was unable to get his car back in to control before the car smashed right into a utility pole.

Everything from that point on, Xander could only discern brief flashes of sensations: searing pain, the tale-tell sounds of crunching metal, and a flash of brown fur, before he finally slipped into unconsciousness.

To Be Contintued ...


End file.
